BC Business
One of the problems in business today is that large organizations are saddled with endless layers of management. This almost ensures that it can take forever for a decision to be made. When you’re a company selling a product to businesses, this can make it very difficult to reach the decision makers easily and quickly.
PROBLEM A tiny Vancouver software start-up faced this problem after it developed database software that enables small groups and individuals to manage and share data – a very useful tool in the modern world of team-based businesses. Smallthought Systems launched its Dabble DB software in June. The applications, which have been generating a lot of buzz in online and offline technology media in the U.S., are easy to use and, because they’re web-based, easy to access. Developers Avi Bryant and Andrew Catton based Dabble on Smalltalk, a basic programming language developed in the 1970s to create educational software for children. It sounds great, but in selling its tool to big business Smallthought faced a rather large challenge. Big organizations tend to be loaded with complicated management structures rooted in old thinking and, typically, these types don’t trust simple software that doesn’t come with a squad of IT consultants to install it and train everyone in the organization on how to use it. Such software is also usually priced very low, making it even more suspect in potential customers’ eyes. SOLUTION Smallthought, which grew to five people after Ventures West decided to invest in the company, is part of a clutch of small creative companies in B.C. including firms such as Webware, Enterprise 2.0 and Software As Service. It provides online software tools previously available only from big vendors. Smallthought harnesses new web-enabled streams such as social networking, community websites, long-tail economics and blogging, and finds business applications for them. The company knew it couldn’t crack the corner offices, so it targeted the users on the shop floor. Through various buzz-building methods, word of mouth and mentions by early-adopter gurus, it’s been signing up smaller departments of big companies, small team-based businesses and even individuals who need to create their own databases cheaply. “It’s a bottom-up marketing approach using social networking or community-building techniques,” explains Bryant. “In a sense, it’s subverting the big corporate IT systems. Typically, someone in a group will use their personal credit card to get our software because they need it. Eventually, they migrate it to the corporate account.” Dabble’s main benefit is that it’s very easy to use. Everything resides on the web, so groups can begin building databases immediately without having to be trained. But that ease of use is also an impediment. Even though its servers are secure, many companies still frown on their corporate information residing in a public forum such as a website, so Dabble is still often used surreptitiously. Several companies have asked Smallthought to build proprietary versions, but they’ve refused. “We’re interested in handfuls of people who have a problem and solve it themselves,” Bryant explains. “We don’t want 1,000 users in one organization. We want communities.” There’s something bigger going on, however, and it involves a sea change in how organizations will work in future. Dabble and other webware transfer power from the top to the bottom: instead of company chiefs sending selected information and decisions to employees, those people now can gather their own information and make their own decisions. The democratization of the marketplace created by the web in the last few years is moving into the workplace. Fast. Lessons learned • Sell to the user, not the decision maker. The market is learning that the end user of the product is the one who makes the decision. Now the workplace is as well. • Small is beautiful. On the web, you can do quite well by selling in small lots to many users. • Simplicity rules. Something simple and understandable is usually far more popular than something that’s extremely complicated. Click here to read Tony’s blog.